The majority of gaming terminals including casino gaming terminals such as mechanical or electronic slot machines, keno machines, poker, blackjack or other card playing machines, and the like operate on a coin, cash or token basis, i.e., accept wagers in the form of government-issued coins, casino-minted tokens, and/or standard cash. Although some gaming devices or systems permit wagers based on standard credit or debit cards, there has been some reluctance in the gaming industry to wide-spread adoption of such devices, both on the part of casinos (and other gaming operators) and on the part of players. It is believed that at least some part of the reluctance arises from a perception that widespread adoption of credit or debit cards for gaming could lead to unauthorized usage of such cards, such as use of stolen or lost cards. If it was possible to implement a system which could prevent, reduce or detect unauthorized card usage, a number of benefits could be realized. The entertainment value of a gaming device to a player would be enhanced because there would be reduced need for a player to obtain, transport, control and use relatively bulky and/or cumbersome coins, or cash. Game operators could potentially benefit by developing gaming terminals or systems which had little or no need for cash or coin handling, thus simplifying or eliminating items such as the design, fabrication, installation, and maintenance of coin or cash handling devices, resupplying devices with coins or cash, developing and maintaining appropriate security procedures and systems for handling relatively large amounts of coins and cash and the like.
In many current gaming terminals, a relatively large portion of the volume, mass and cost of a gaming terminal is attributed to coin or cash handling devices. If the need for such devices is reduced or eliminated, a resultant reduction in volume, size and cost of gaming terminals can not only be of immediate benefit in context of current casinos and other gaming systems but also provides an opportunity to develop additional gaming markets. Accordingly, it would be useful provide a gaming terminal and system which can facilitate the development of and/or use of gaming terminals while reducing or eliminating the need for coin or cash handling devices, such as to facilitate a card-based or other cashless gaming terminal.
In non-gaming contexts a number of systems have been proposed for implementing machine-measurement of human features or characteristics. For example, biometric measurement devices are available for use in connection with automatic teller machines and for use with personal computers. Such biometric systems include retinal, iris, or fingerprint scans, voice print or voice recognition systems, facial recognition systems and the like. In a typical biometric system, reference biometric data for known individuals is stored in a central computer or other central data repository. When it is desired to identify or verify identity of a person, appropriate biometric data for such individual is measured and such measurements are compared to the previously-stored data in the central repository. Although such systems are useful in many contexts, they are believed to be less than ideal for use in the gaming industry for a number of reasons. It is believed that many gaming industry patrons (as well as many members of the general public) are reluctant to use a system which requires personal information such as fingerprint, retinal scan, iris scan or other biometric information, to be stored in a central location, effectively out of the individual's possession and control. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a system for biometric identification or identity verification (authentication) which permits a user to effectively maintain possession and control of his or her biometric information.
Systems which store reference biometric data in a central computer or other central repository necessarily require access to such reference data in performing a verification or authentication or identification. In the context of the gaming industry, where players typically wish to have freedom to move from terminal to terminal, or game to game, with relative ease, previous approaches would require each terminal to have the facility for remote access to the central data repository. Providing remote access in a system that potentially has thousands of gaming terminals would involve a computer network or other remote access system with a relatively high (and accordingly expensive) bandwidth and, even with relatively advanced communication systems, it was believed such a system would involve substantial delay for a player each time the player moves from one terminal to another. It is believed that, while individuals might tolerate a degree of delay in certain non-gaming biometric verification or identification procedures, it is likely there would be relatively low tolerance for delay in the gaming industry. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a (preferably lightweight, portable and low cost) biometric identification or authentication system in which cost of bandwidth and delay associated with the central storage of biometric data on a computer or similar system can be reduced or eliminated.